Spurt phenomena of the Johnson-Segalman fluid and related models

Abstract We examine the behavior of viscoelastic fluid models which exhibit local extrema of the steady shear stress. For the Johnson-Segalman and Giesekus models, a variety of steady singular solutions with jumps in shear rate are constructed and their stability to one dimensional disturbances analyzed. It is found that flow-rate versus imposed stress curves in slit-die flow fit experimental observation of the “spurt” phenomenon with some precision. The flow curves involve linearly stable singular solutions, but some assumptions on the dynamics of the spurt process are required. These assumptions are tested by a semi-implicit finite element solution technique which allows solutions to be efficiently integrated over the very long time-scale involved. The Johnson-Segalman model with added Newtonian viscosity is used in the calculations. It is found that the assumptions required to model spurf are satisfied by the dynamic model. The dynamic model also displays a characteristic “latency time” before the spurt ensues and a characteristic “shape memory” hysteresis in load/unload cycles. These as well as other features of the computed solutions should be observable experimentally. We conclude that constitutive equations with shear stress extrema are not necessarily flawed, that their predicted behavior may appear to be arrested “wall slip”, and that such behavior may actually have been observed already.